Victorian mansion in Apopka may be transformed again

November 29, 2008|By Daphne Sashin, Sentinel Staff Writer

APOPKA -- The historic Victorian mansion overlooking U.S. Highway 441 is about to undergo yet another transformation, this time at the hands of a hotel-management group with grand plans for the city-owned property.

Six months after the city evicted the Captain and The Cowboy restaurant for failure to pay rent, it has signed a 15-year contract with Trust Hotels and Resorts, a management and development company that ran the Belleview Biltmore Golf & Spa Resort near Clearwater for seven years.

By Christmas, the group expects to reopen the 4,000-square-foot house as Highland Manor. It will feature a restaurant serving "natural and comfort foods," private dining rooms for parties, a retail bakery, gift shops and a "Victorian, Laura Ashley ballroom with crystal chandeliers" for weddings and other functions, Trust Hotels President and CEO Richard Wilhelm said.

The group will spend $500,000 on renovations to the restaurant and adjacent chapel, he said.

Then, in about two years, the group plans to open a Victorian-style inn with as many as 40 suites. Ultimately, the 11-acre property will be transformed into a "destination resort," Wilhelm said.

Wilhelm said he has affection for historic buildings, which he likes to call "grand dames." He was president of The Plaza Hotel in New York for six years and held several management positions at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

Despite the sour economy and the building's checkered retail history, Wilhelm said he is impressed by the site's opportunities.

"Apopka is definitely a growing population and a high-end demographic," he said, adding that the property's location -- near the Western Beltway and adjacent to the intersection of U.S. 441 and State Road 436 -- makes it readily accessible.

To encourage the restaurant to open, the city won't start collecting rent until May and then will charge a graduated rate, Apopka Chief Administrative Officer Richard Anderson said. Until October, the payment will be the greater of $10,000 per month or 5 percent of gross sales. Between November and the following April, it will rise to $14,000 per month or 5 percent of sales.

Beginning May 1, 2010, the rent will increase to $18,000 per month through the end of the 15-year contract, which also includes two 10-year renewal options. If the city follows through on plans to build a new town center on adjacent land, the rent will drop to $3,600 per month or 1 percent of gross sales during construction.

Built in 1903, the Queen Anne-style mansion has been reincarnated several times. Originally on North Highland Avenue -- where it was known as the McBride House after one of Apopka's first doctors and the home's last occupant -- it was moved to its current spot in 1985 under threat of demolition.

Two years later, it became a restaurant called Townsend's Plantation, and the property also became the site of an annual Civil War re-enactment. After that restaurant closed in 1997, the house hosted occasional banquets and events and was a haunted-house attraction for a few Halloweens. In 2005, it reopened as the steak-and-seafood restaurant Captain and the Cowboy.

The property is part of about 50 acres that the city bought in 2006 for a future downtown expansion. In May, the city evicted Captain and the Cowboy, saying the owners owed nearly $300,000 in back rent, fees and other deposits. City attorneys are trying to recover the money, Anderson said.